Hi! I’m based in France for a month. I was planning to buy an inter rail pass so that I could go to places for a day, or occasional stopover - day in Germany then home, day in Paris then home, weekend in London then home…….have I completely misunderstood how the pass works?
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Profile says your an OZzie from down yundah-perhaps even the back of Bourke? Then INTERrail is not for you-has to be EUrail-dont sweat-same offer, same price, with the added bonus that you get unlimited travel on all systems-we EUr only out of our country.
Yes, assuming you use the trains/companies etc of those who participate-in most countries thats all, in some not, you can use it as many times and for whatever trip you intend-if you can manage it even in 5-6 countries in 1 day I did).
BUT-judging from 100s of posts here, about each & every newbee exactly wants to use those trains that need a hefty extra in REServation-sometimes also quite hard to get. Well over 90% of all trains do not (like the MEL or SYD-NSW suburbans), but it seems these are not wanted. And those are also exactly the trips you mention……..Notably that tunnel €* is a PITA to get.
With a Eurail pass you can travel exactly as you like, with weekend trips to different places. Just make sure to get any needed reservations.
There are plenty of options for weekends with a Eurail pass. For the UK you can check Eurostar availability on this site without a pass - just select Eurail pass in the drop down box.
https://www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass#TravelWish
To make a booking you will need a pass and a Pass Cover Number, which for a mobile pass you need to convert.
Eurail: https://www.eurail.com/en/book-reservations#/generatePassCoverNumber
Interrail: https://www.interrail.eu/en/book-reservations#/generatePassCoverNumber
You can often get better availability from Lille (about 1 hour by TGV from Paris). Avoid Thalys if possible for your weekends - they are expensive reservations. TGVs in France will cost 10 or 20 euro, but cost a lot more if they cross borders. Usual advice is to travel TGV to last station before border and then hop onto a local cross border train - no reservations needed.
Here is some useful information from the experienced travellers in the Community regarding both planning, reservations and activation of pass and travel days.
Planning
The rail planner is normally not up to date, as it only is updated once a month, so to be sure of the time table you better check the timetable and availability on the websites of the national railways. The bigger national railways, like DB (Germany) SBB (Switzerland) and ÖBB (Austria) cover several countries.
Reservations
The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is to use other ways to make reservations than the Interrail/Eurail website. You can look at the guide in the link:
https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105
If you, after having looked at the guide, have questions about how to make specific reservation, please give your travel details (departure date, time and route) preferably in a new topic, and you will get advice.
Please note that Interrail/Eurail charges an extra fee of 2 EUR per person and train in addition to the fee for the seat reservation.
Activation of pass
During the activation process, when you choose the start day of the validity of the pass, the first day of the validity period is automatically made a travel day, even if you don't enter a journey, the advice is therefore not to activate the pass before the first travel day as you only can deactivate the pass before 00.00 on the day the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you will loose travel days if you have activated the pass in advance.
It can be wise to make a test and activate the pass with a start date well in the future and then deactivate the pass immediately, just to see that everything works.
Activation of travel day
The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is also never to activate a travel day, that is connect a journey to your pass and create the ticket (QR code), until just before boarding the train, otherwise you might loose a travel day if your travel plans change in a late stage You can't delete a travel day in the past. A travel day can only be deleted until 23.59 CET the day before the travel day.
Thanks everyone. I’m still confused though! The website says you can only use the pass for one outbound journey from home, and one inbound journey. So I’d only be able to leave and return to France one time, for the duration of the pass? Or is that a daily limit?
Yes, I’m an Aussie, staying in an apartment in Strasbourg. I want to go to Paris tomorrow morning, and return to my apartment in the evening. Then on Friday I want to go to Germany, and come back in the evening. On Saturday I want to go to London, and come back to Strasbourg on Sunday evening. For Example! - I’d be exhausted if I tried to do all that! But it’s the sort of thing I was hoping to do.
Thanks everyone. I’m still confused though! The website says you can only use the pass for one outbound journey from home, and one inbound journey. So I’d only be able to leave and return to France one time, for the duration of the pass? Or is that a daily limit?
This applies for the Interrailpass :)
As a Australian you dont qualify for Interrail 
you have to use the Eurailpass :)
The good point is with the Eurailpass you doesnt have this Outbound/Inbound Journey issue as this is just important for Interrail
Yes, I’m an Aussie, staying in an apartment in Strasbourg. I want to go to Paris tomorrow morning, and return to my apartment in the evening. Then on Friday I want to go to Germany, and come back in the evening. On Saturday I want to go to London, and come back to Strasbourg on Sunday evening. For Example! - I’d be exhausted if I tried to do all that! But it’s the sort of thing I was hoping to do.
Strasbourg - Paris TGV need a reservation 10€ / 20€ ontop of the Eurailpass (and can be sold out as currently everybody travels between Living Place and Workplace + Christmas Tourists)
Strasbourg - Germany i recommend to save money to cross it with a Regionaltrain and change then in Offenburg for Highspeedservices in your desired direction (within Germany no reservations compulsory)
Straßbourg - London would bring you again to Paris as Eurostar only starts from Paris,Lille,Brussels,Rotterdam,Amsterdam to London
Eurostar needs a reservation and iam afraid these sell out usually days/weeks in advance and especially yet even months in advance.
You wont get a Eurostar reservation for this Saturday / Sunday 
(These are limited for Railpassuser on their Services)
Thanks! Those were just example journeys, I’m trying to understand how it works, if I can make many day trips to and from my base. I’ll look at the Eurailpass then, thanks for that.
Thanks! Those were just example journeys, I’m trying to understand how it works, if I can make many day trips to and from my base. I’ll look at the Eurailpass then, thanks for that.
Yes you can but especially in France the Highspeed Services needs a reservation
From Strasbourg you can have reservation free daytrips to Metz, Luxembourg, Colmar, Basel, Freiburg, Black Forest, Lake Constance. For Lyon,Paris you will need mosttimes a reservation
Okay, that sounds good, thank you. The website is so confusing!
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